Brazil Grand Prix Result: Vettel wins title after dramatic finale

Vettel is a three-time world champion

If ever a race summed up this year's F1 season then today's Brazil Grand Prix was that race. It had absolutely everything from the first lap as James Frankland explains...

After a pulsating, thrilling and tense Brazilian Grand Prix Sebastian Vettel emerged with his third consecutive Formula One World Championship, defeating title rival Fernando Alonso by the slender margin of just three points.

Vettel finished sixth to earn eight points, but despite Alonso finishing second the 18 points scored were not enough to cancel out the 13-point lead held by the Red Bull driver.

Vettel really had to fight to earn his victory - after making a slow start from fourth he was caught out on the first lap, spinning after heavy contact with Bruno Senna's Williams and dropping to the back of the field. And from being 1.21/5 to win the Drivers' Championship 30 seconds prior, Vettel was now trading at around the 4.03/1 mark.

Vettel's Red Bull RB8 showed the scars of battle but was able to continue, and the German made the most of his good fortune to get himself back into a championship-winning position.

Alonso - who went as short as 1.351/3 to win the title during a dramatic opening lap - was ahead of Vettel for the entire race, but never had enough of a points gap to earn his third title, and must now hope that Ferrari's 2013 challenger will finally enable him to end Vettel's dominance.

The race itself was dominated by the McLarens and Nico Hulkenberg's Force India, who stole the lead from eventual race winner Jenson Button, the McLaren driver having passed his outgoing teammate Lewis Hamilton earlier in the race.

Changeable weather conditions were causing problems up and down the field, with drivers pitting for intermediate tyres and then stopping again for slicks when the intermittent rain eased off.

A further rain shower towards the end of the race allowed Hulkenberg to close on Hamilton, only for the German to spin into the Englishman at the first corner, ending Hamilton's last race for McLaren with damaged suspension. He was applauded by the entire McLaren garage on his return but it is not the way he would have wanted to sign off before heading to Mercedes next season.

Hamilton's retirement allied to Hulkenberg serving a penalty for causing the collision elevated Button into the lead and Alonso to second place, but it was never going to be enough for the Spaniard with Vettel eventually climbing to sixth place, despite falling as far back as 11th when he pitted for a change of tyres, only for his crew to have none ready for him!

Other notable performances were put in by Michael Schumacher who finished seventh in his last race before retirement, helping Mercedes secure fifth place in the Constructor's Championship, and Vitaly Petrov who put Caterham back in 10th position, earning themselves around 15m in prize money next season, by finishing 11th and ahead of Charles Pic, the Marussia driver.

So it is Vettel who converted his short pre-race odds of 1.21/5 to win the title, but he was matched at a high of 11.010/1 for small money at one stage this year. Alonso's odds have generally bounced between 4.03/1 and 5.04/1, although after the German Grand Prix he was as short as 2.0421/20 - at that point he held a 34-point lead in the standings and had won two of the previous three races, with a second in the British Grand Prix, a race which he led for the most part until Webber found a way by.

It has been another spectacular season of Formula One racing and I have greatly enjoyed sharing it with the readers of betting.betfair.com. After today's race - and indeed the 2012 season! - we'll probably all need a bit of a lie down, but here's the good news: there's only 112 days until it all kicks off again in Melbourne!